It would be tough to totally blame Ken Hitchcock if he watched the last two St. Louis Blues games* and grumbled, “So NOW you’re stopping pucks?”
After Carter Hutton pitched a 26-save shutout against the Flyers on Monday, Jake Allen made 30 saves for a shutout of his own as the Blues clobbered the Ottawa Senators 6-0 on Tuesday. Not bad for two goalies with backup-type numbers who ... let’s be honest, probably cost Hitchcock his job.
(There were other issues, but goaltending was the most glaring problem.)
The Blues have now won three of their last four games, and one way or another, they’ll find themselves somewhere in the West playoff picture by the end of the night.
These two shutout wins begin a five-game road trip in style, and with a road-heavy run ahead of them through March 21, they need to gather momentum like this.
It’s far too early to say for certain if turning to Mike Yeo was the right move, but the honeymoon phase seems pretty sunny so far.
* - Hopefully he’s going the Don Nelson route and already has suntan notion on his nose at some tropical resort.